


If Ye Love Me

by captainkaltar



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Arranged Marriage, Bad Poetry, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, One Shot, Secret Relationship, Teenagers, Young Love, prince!erwin, squire!Levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 07:44:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8481316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainkaltar/pseuds/captainkaltar
Summary: This is set in the same universe as a high fantasy/medieval RP that Danchou and I made up together last summer, in which Erwin is a king and Levi is his champion knight, the protector of his kingdom if you will. They have a secret relationship despite Erwin being married to Marie, and they've known each other since childhood. In this fic, they're somewhere about 13/14, Erwin's still a prince, Levi's still a squire, they're already desperately in love.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blessedthrice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blessedthrice/gifts).



> This was supposed to be a birthday present for @danchou-chan, but then I got sucked into a school vortex and didn't finish it until months after her birthday came and went :p So happy very belated birthday Danchou!

Late summer sunlight drifts through the window of the study, but the Erwin hardly seems to notice the world beyond his writing desk. The young prince’s head is bent over his papers, and he doesn’t realize that he’s not alone in the room until a small hand rests on his shoulder and he looks up into a pair of familiar grey eyes. 

 

“Levi!” He smiles up at the little squire, the boy chosen to protect his kingdom one day. His eyes wander to the door, making sure it’s properly shut before reaching up to cup the shorter boy’s cheek, guiding his head down until their lips meet in a careful, gentle kiss. 

 

When Levi pulls away, his cheeks are flushed and the fierce expression that always seems to rest in his eyes is somehow softened. He stands over Erwin’s chair, able to be the taller of the two for once in his life. 

 

“What brings you here, my little bird?” Erwin lifts Levi’s hand in both of his own, brushing a few little kisses into his squire’s palm, causing Levi to blush and look at the floor. 

 

“I wondered if you wanted to practice your fencing with me, the squires are free for the afternoon.”

 

“I wish I could,” Erwin lets out a long, slow breath “But I have so much work to do…” He looks up at Levi with a dejected expression. 

 

“What’s with all the papers?” Levi surveys his prince’s desk.

 

“See this?” Erwin picks up a miniature portrait hanging by a silver chain, tilting it so Levi can look at it. “This is the girl I’m marrying. She’s written me letters and I’m trying to reply.” 

 

“Who is she?” Levi blinks, leaning in to get a closer look at her picture. Dark hair, full lips, something of a faraway, dreamy look in her eyes, strange Southern clothing in richly embroidered fabrics. 

 

“That’s Marie, princess of the Southern Isles.” Erwin turns the miniature over in his hands and stares over it with a look on his face that Levi knows all too well, the face Erwin wears when his mind is working fast, plotting and calculating. Silence falls over the room, the two boys lost in thought. 

 

Finally Levi breaks the silence, a suspicious note creeping into his voice. “So what do you think of her?” 

 

“Oh, she’s pretty enough, I suppose.” 

 

“You suppose?”

 

“You know how I feel about girls. Anyhow, Marie’s clever and she reads a lot and she makes me laugh.” _And she comes from a powerful kingdom, and she’ll bear me children,_ he adds mentally, knowing that Levi hates thinking about the marriage almost as much as he does. 

 

“She’s got strange handwriting.” Levi picks up one of the letters strewn over the table and holds it up to the light, his brows furrowing as he tries to decipher its contents. 

 

“Apparently people from the Southern Isles write like that. I can read it, but only slowly.”

 

Levi unceremoniously sets the letter back down. “There’s a bunch of words in there that I don’t know.” 

 

“Huh, this part over here?” Erwin squints at the paper, skimming one finger under a line of long words. “I think those are terms for different types of poem; Marie says she enjoys poetry and wonders if I ever read it in my spare time.”

 

“I thought you didn’t care about poetry.”

 

“I read it from time to time, it’s not as interesting as tactics or history.” 

 

“Are you going to tell her that in your letter?”

 

“Of course not! You don’t go and tell a girl you think the thing she enjoys is boring! I’m supposed to impress her, Levi, I need to make her like me.” Erwin sighs, running a hand through his tousled blond hair. 

 

“Well then what ~do~ you tell her?” 

 

“I don’t know. I was going to tell her about my favourite book of military tactics, but my father says girls don’t care about such things.”

 

“You’ve written her an awful lot for someone who doesn’t know what to say.” Levi snatches a piece of paper half-covered in Erwin’s distinctive scrawl, holding it up to the light and squinting at the curly lines of ink. 

 

“Hey! Don’t read that!” Erwin springs from his chair, grabbing Levi’s waist and trying to pry his fingers away from the letter, but the smaller boy holds his ground. 

 

“‘Oh fairest flower of the South’ -curse you Erwin, what is this?” 

 

“Levi, stop it!” 

 

“You’re not writing her a love poem!”

 

“Put it down!”

 

“‘ _Oh fairest flower of the South, my fairest bride-to-be, with raven hair and rosy mouth, oh wondrous sweet Marie-_ ’ seven hells Erwin, this is shit!” 

 

“I know it is,” Erwin looks at the floor “I have no idea how to do any of this.” He takes the paper from Levi’s hand and sets it gently on the desk. “Maybe I shouldn’t send her that after all, I got lost two verses in. I can’t think of any words that rhyme with ‘beautiful’, or ‘Princess’, or ‘forever’.”

 

“You don’t really love her, do you.” Levi’s direct and blunt as always, a trait that Erwin knows will make him a good royal advisor one day, despite his total lack of diplomatic grace. He, on the other hand, has to think before answering, sighing as he weighs out his options. When he does speak, he tries to keep his tone measured, afraid of accidentally hurting the other boy. 

 

“Well, we both know I have to marry her, I might as well try and grow fond of her.” 

 

“That’s not the same thing as loving her.”

 

“I know,” Erwin takes a deep breath, his eyes wandering down to the little miniature, the painted girl smiling up innocently at him “Even if she’s the cleverest, prettiest queen in the world, I can never love her. She’ll never be you, Levi.” He sighs, resting his head against Levi’s shoulder, his arms wrapped tight around his future champion’s waist, closing his eyes and breathing Levi in. 

 

“I’ll always love you, Levi, I promise.” Erwin pulls the smaller boy into his lap, their bodies wrapped around each other, Levi’s mouth crashing into his own without so much as a warning. They’ve kissed many times before, but there’s something new in play this time: Levi’s never held him so tightly as they kiss, he’s never tugged at Erwin’s hair, trying to keep their bodies locked together. It’s a long time before Levi breaks away, catching his breath with his face flushed and eyes lidded. 

 

“Promise me one more thing?” He cups Erwin’s cheeks in both hands. 

 

“Anything for you, my sweetling.” Erwin lets a kiss alight on Levi’s forehead, fingers grasping at his soft, inky hair. 

 

“Never write me any of your disgusting love poetry.” 

 

“But- but- Levi, if I love y-“ He’s cut short by a sharp burst of laughter, Levi’s body quaking in his arms. “Levi, it’s not funny!”

 

“You take everything too seriously, my prince.” Levi grins wide enough to reveal his crooked front teeth, making Erwin feel like the luckiest boy alive, arranged marriage or no.

 

He can’t resist that rare smile and rarer laugh, that laugh that lingers on his lips as he presses them against Levi’s honey-sweet mouth, his heart brimming with the sound of it. They kiss for as long as they dare, he future looming over them even in such a perfect moment as this, hands brushing each other’s necks, Levi’s legs around his waist, warmed by the sunlight drifting through the high castle window. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! ^.^
> 
> For the record, the title of this fic comes from this gorgeous song from the Renaissance: I listened to it a lot while writing this. 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zGOsN0pAw0


End file.
